MONEY FROM IRAN SAID TO BUY ALARM FOR NORTH'S HOME

Published: June 24, 1987

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Under questioning by committee members, Mr. Robinette acknowledged he drew up the bills to protect Colonel North and to curry favor with General Secord, who was his best customer for the small security firm he runs.

Mr. Robinette testified that he had originally been hired by General Secord in March 1986 to gather evidence against the Christic Institute, a group that had filed a lawsuit against General Secord and other members of the private network that supplied assistance to the Nicaraguan rebels after Congress cut off official American aid. $4,000 a Month in Cash General Secord paid him $4,000 a month for that service, usually in cash, which he took out of a drawer or briefcase, Mr. Robinette said.

In April of last year, Mr. Robinette testified, General Secord told him that Colonel North was ''experiencing threats against his family'' at their home and asked him to arrange for the security measures.

In an interview today, General Secord denied that he had given any money to Mr. Robinette for Colonel North's security system. He said he had paid Mr. Robinette $4,000 a month plus expenses to investigate the lawsuit, and he suggested Mr. Robinette could have used some of that money to underwrite the gate.

''He told me he thought it would be a fairly small amount of money and he would be repaid by North,'' General Secord said. Article Is Criticized

In other testimony, Mr. Robinette criticized an article in The New York Times last week that said Congressional investigators expected him to present evidence linking General Secord with Edwin P. Wilson, the C.I.A. agent convicted of smuggling arms to Libya. He said he had no such evidence.

But Paul Barbadoro, a counsel to the Senate committee, said today that the committee still intended to investigate the general question of possible links betwen General Secord and Mr. Wilson. ''There's certainly a coincidence of events we're exploring,'' he said.

Mr. Koch's testimony this afternoon about the anonymous donation to the Secord defense fund raised eyebrows on the investigative committees because it created the impression that General Secord might still be benefiting from the proceeds of the arms sales to Iran.

Mr. Koch, who left the Pentagon last year and is now in private business, said he helped start the legal defense fund because of his friendship with General Secord. He said he resigned as a trustee of the fund last week, after he learned of the large contribution from the secret Swiss bank account, because ''it had a peculiar odor to it.'' Secord Did Not Know Source

Mr. Koch said he had pressed General Secord about the source of the donation - two contributions of $200,000 and one of $100,000 - and that the general had said he did not know who gave the money.

Senator Rudman, who in the course of the hearings has repeatedly accused General Secord o& profiteering, remarked incredulously, ''We have all these incidents of people doing wonderful things for other people and not telling them about it.''

Asked about the donation to his legal defense fund, General Secord said today: ''There have been some payments. I am not exactly sure where they came from. I think they're coming from former acquaintances of mine abroad who are familiar with my work and who are outraged by what the committee is doing to me. I expect we will get more sizable donations.''

The money was drawn on an account at Credit Suisse, the Swiss bank where General Secord and his business partner, Albert Hakim, laundered money from the Iran arms sales. Officials Opposed Arms Sales

In the fall of 1985, when the arms sales to Iran began, Mr. Koch was Principal Deputy Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He testified today along with Dr. Henry H. Gaffney, director of plans for the Defense Security Assistance Agency, the branch of the Pentagon concerned with arms sales to other governments.

The two officials, who are not accused of any wrongdoing, said they had strenuously opposed the arms sales, which they saw as violating the United States policy on dealing with terrorists and as breaking faith with American allies.

But they said the White House had insisted on the transactions. Mr. Koch said that at one point in the fall of 1985, Colonel North had told him President Reagan was determined to swap the weapons for hostages.

''This thing is really eating him, and he's driving me nuts about it,'' Mr. Koch quoted Mr. North as saying of the President.